Richmond Selectman Gary Poulin, remembered as a man with a great love of his town, died Thursday at Maine Medical Center.

He was just days away from his 61st birthday. A cause of death was not immediately available Monday.

“In tribute to Gary, it can easily be said that the only two things he ever loved in his life were his work as a contractor and the town of Richmond,” O’Neil LaPlante, chairman of the Richmond Board of Selectmen, said Monday.

“He would do anything for anybody,” LaPlante said. “He loved his town, and he felt very strongly that he wanted to help make it better.”

That included donating his time and talent and pitching in whenever he was needed.

Town Manager Janet Smith said Poulin was always the first to say he would pull the employee float in the Richmond Days parade or give away hot dogs and chips at Richmond’s Bicycle Rodeo.

“He supported programs for children, swim lessons in particular,” Smith said. “He advocated that because we’re on the (Kennebec) river and we have Pleasant Pond. He wanted to make sure kids knew how to swim. He will definitely be missed throughout the community.”

LaPlante, who served on the Board of Selectmen with Poulin for three years, said Poulin had an unbelievable knowledge of rock ‘n’ roll music and could identify just about any song from the 1970s and 1980s from just a few bars and say who recorded it.

“He had a real love of Harley-Davidson motorcycles,” he said. “He had four.”

Poulin grew up in Augusta and graduated from Cony High School in 1976. He worked for Gannet Printing and McCarthy Printing in Augusta before he started his own contracting business.

He married Marjorie Bond in 1984.

Last year, Poulin and his wife, who died in 2014, were named Richmond’s Spirit of America Award winners for the volunteer work they have done in Richmond.

Smith said Poulin commissioned and donated a hand-carved sign for the entryway of the Isaac F. Umberhine Library, and he built the circulation desk.

He was first elected to the Richmond Board of Selectmen in 2012. He was one of five candidates vying for two open seats.

When he ran the first time, Poulin said, he had no political experience, but he wanted to get involved with the government to support his community.

He said at the time that taxes are the biggest issue facing the town and, if elected, he would work to see whether spending by the town is justified.

“I’m an honest guy. I work hard,” Poulin said in an interview with the Kennebec Journal. “If I do get elected, I’d put 110 percent effort into it. I go to the town meetings, but you don’t get a real perspective of what the selectmen go through from that. It’s a decision process I want to try to get involved with.”

Colleagues say Poulin would listen to all sides of an issue before making up his mind, and once he decided, he was ready to move forward.

His current term ends in June.

The Richmond Town Office will close at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday — which is Poulin’s birthday — so that town employees may attend the funeral service for Poulin, which will be held at Kincer Funeral Home at 130 Pleasant St. The office will reopen after the service.

Jessica Lowell — 621-5632

jlowell@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @JLowellKJ